The Utilitarian And Kantian Ideas

Improved Essays
I will discuss the utilitarian and Kantian ideas on how they relate to the “trolley” problem scenario one and two. When a person is placed in scenario one a utilitarian would say the morally right thing to do is pull the lever to ensure only one person is killed and the five other lives are spared. Although you as the person and the family of the one person killed may suffer sadness. It is less suffering then you as the person and five other family and friends suffering. Scenario two is quite similar except for one major difference being that you as the person has to physically push a person off a bridge to stop the train from killing five others. This scenario is more difficult to make a decision. A utilitarian would choose to push the person

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    This makes me think of a parent trying to help their kid study. I know whenever my dad would try to help me with homework it would just confuse me further and cause me to be upset. While my dad was tutoring me believing that it was good will, it didn’t have a good outcome. The utilitarian approach also applies to the Trolley problem. Choosing to let one man die over five because you think it’ll cause a happier outcome is technically moral according to Mill.…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Trolley Allegory fall into the category of an experiment dilemma. There are five workers who are not supposed to be in a work area on the railroad where there is a trolley about to cross where the workers are at. Now the operator is going to try to stop and push on the breaks. The operator cannot stop the trolley and the workers cannot move in time. Now the operator sees another section where he can go but there is one worker.…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The type of utilitarianism that you choose is where you should be careful. It’s not always beneficial to do something because it helps the greatest number of people. That’s when the topic of morality comes into play which is the followed by rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism talks about the greatest good for the greatest number, however, it does not bring morality into perspective. So, if you have the option of saving six people and killing one, you would do so?…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A runaway trolley will kill five people if it stays on its current path. I have the option to pull a lever and divert the trolley to an alternate track. In this case, it will only kill one person. What should I do? This is the trolley problem, a classic thought experiment whose outcome has numerous applications.…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    ”A majority of people agree that they would rather kill the one man in order to save the lives of five because they believe in utilitarianism, which is the idea that the greatest good will come from benefitting the greatest number of people. (Edmonds 69). However, a majority of people additionally agree that it is unethical to divert the direction of the oncoming train to kill the man. In order to demonstrate to the reader familiarity with these notions for granted. Edmonds draws numerous connections between the trolleyology and a variety of significant philosophical ideas and debates to highlight similar ideas that is apparent throughout…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Moral Theory Of Utilitarianism. The moral theory of Utilitarianism is defined as to be that an action is only good only if it brings happiness to others. There are three sub principles that define the theory of Utilitarianism, Principle one talks about how consequences are all that matter in a situation or an action, that the final outcome/ results are those that matter. The second principle states that happiness is the only thing that matters and that we seek for pleasure more often and we hate to have pain.…

    • 1376 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If you keep straight, you will hit the worker and kill him, but if you swerve left into oncoming traffic, you will collide with a school bus and kill at least five children. As previously stated the choice to commit first-degree murder is something that could’ve been prevented. That would be choosing the children over the worker, whom I couldn’t prevent from falling. In this case utilitarianism does have the answer because killing the worker…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When you apply our theory to it, you can’t be an Ethical Egoist in this situation because the 5 men’s lives are at stake down the track, so that means you must look at it from a Utilitarianist viewpoint. If you push the fat man off the bridge, you’ll have the unhappiness of his family and the unhappiness from yourself since you physically pushed him off. On the other hand, have 5 people die, and all of their families being affected is much more unhappiness in the world. So the only choice is you must push the fat man off the…

    • 1205 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are three substantial ethical theories in philosophy. Each attempting to prove the others wrong. These theories include: Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, Mill’s Utilitarianism, and Kant’s Deontological Ethics. In their theories, each thought they had found the answer to finding the truth. Each theory has a hole in it that made others speculate it’s truth.…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Utilitarian Ethical Theory

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Among the three ethical theories studied in class, the utilitarian theory can be used in explaining ethical implications of Face Recognition technology. Chonko, Larry (1-5) describes various ethical theories. However, Chonko Larry (2) asserts that utilitarian ethical theory is based on the ability of an individual to predict the significance of an action. Action in this case study is using Facial Recognition technology in iPhone X. According to the theory, an option which results in the greatest benefit to most individuals is the one who is ethically right and correct.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the same ways that Kantian ethics has some downsides, utilitarianism has some upsides to it. Firstly Kantian ethics doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome or consequence due to the fact that Kantian ethics doesn’t dwell on consequences. You many do have proper motivation, but end up with an immoral consequence. The classic example here is if you were hiding Jews in your house during WWII and some Nazis showed up. If you follow Kantian ethics, it’s in your duty to tell the truth and tell these soldiers that you do indeed have Jews in your house.…

    • 1356 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While walking down the side of the road, you come across a person who seems to have tattered clothing, an unbathed demeanor, holding a sign that says “Anything Helps”. Does one have a moral obligation to help this person, or is it out of our scope of moral obligation? This difference between moral obligation differs between Utilitarianism and the Kantian approach. According to the Utilitarian theory of moral obligation, their duty is to do what will bring the most good and resolve the most amount of pain. Simply put, whatever would bring the most amount of happiness to the most amount of people is morally good.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In many different situations, an action must be decided on. Mill and Kant each present two major theories as to how this decision is reached and how it can be judged as morally right or wrong. In the given predicament of Rescue I and Rescue II, each philosopher would argue for a different ethical approach based on the fundamental principles of their individual theories components of their theories. John Stuart Mills is famous for his views on utilitarianism. His view is revised from his teacher Jeremy Bentham’s theory of crude utilitarianism which introduces the Greatest Happiness Principle().…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Trolley Problem

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The second half of the prompt asks, if the bystander were to realize that one of the children on the sidetrack was their seven-year-old cousin, would it be morally right to give them preferential treatment and, therefore, not flip the switch? I believe it would not be morally right to give preferential treatment to the bystander’s cousin on the sidetrack because we should not act in our own self-interest but rather perform the act that will benefit the greater good. Not flipping the switch so the bystander could save their cousin on the sidetrack would certainly make the bystander happier, but, going back to utility again, the happiness produced by saving the five children would outweigh the bystander’s happiness and the saving of the two sidetrack children. According to the principle of utilitarianism, we should not take into account our own interests and happiness, but rather the interests and happiness of the greater good (Mill, p. 121, 122). In addition, like I stated before, act utilitarianism states that the correct action to take is the one that results in the most utility, which would still be flipping the switch in order to save the five children on the main track.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Our moral duties or actions are often based on the moralities and duties. As studied, two ethical and philosophical theories perfectly explain and study our moral behaviors and thoughts. The two theories are named Utilitarianism which emphasizes on morality based on good and pleasant consequences, and the Deontological theory which in contrary of the Utilitarianism focuses on Duties and rights. In order to put these theories in practice, a situation of a train is given. In fact, I, the train conductor, am facing a situation where the train is heading straight thus would kill five passengers in the train.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays